K12 and higher education institutions have less than 14 days to remove all diversity, equity and inclusion programming, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s latest denouncement of such initiatives.
Schools are subject to civil rights investigations for carrying out various DEI initiatives, including those that aim to enroll more students of color or hire a racially diverse teaching staff, a Dear Colleague letter from the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights suggests.
This letter was sent to the departments of education in all 50 states, notifying them they have 14 days to remove all DEI programming in all public schools. Institutions which fail to comply may face a loss of federal funding. https://t.co/IufnJMln20
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) February 15, 2025
“But under any banner, discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is, has been, and will continue to be illegal,” wrote Acting Assistant Secretary Craig Trainor.
The letter references the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which prohibited racial preference practices in college admissions. While it addressed admissions decisions, Trainor writes that the Supreme Court’s holding “applies more broadly.”
“At its core, the test is simple: If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person’s race, the educational institution violates the law,” the letter reads.
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Trainor also argues that DEI programs indirectly discriminate against students by giving special preference to some racial groups and declaring others subject to moral burdens.
“Such programs stigmatize students who belong to particular racial groups based on crude racial stereotypes,” Trainor wrote. “Consequently, they deny students the ability to participate fully in the life of a school.”
Ultimately, the letter is a notice of the Department’s current interpretation of federal law as it pertains to DEI in education. Legal guidance will also follow “in due course.”
As for now, educational institutions are recommended to take the following actions to avoid federal investigations:
- Ensure policies and actions comply with existing civil rights laws.
- Cease efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of race by relying on proxies or other indirect means to accomplish such ends.
- End all reliance on third-party contractors, clearinghouses or aggregators that circumvent prohibited uses of race.
“Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding,” the letter concludes.
Already taking action on DEI
The letter comes weeks after President Donald Trump issued a wave of executive orders targeting numerous Biden-era policies, including reverting Title IX to its 2020 iteration, which prohibits schools from referring to gender orientation and sexual identity as the basis of sex.
“The Biden Administration’s failed attempt to rewrite Title IX was an unlawful abuse of regulatory power and an egregious slight to women and girls,” Trainor said in a public statement earlier this month.
The Education Department has already started taking action against schools and their policies. For instance, the Department launched an investigation of Denver Public Schools in late January in response to reports that the district converted a female restroom into an all-gender facility at a local high school.
Scott Pribble, Denver Public Schools director of external communication, told 9News that the change was student-led. “There’s no agenda to it,” Pribble said. “It’s really more about the convenience of having a restroom that everybody can use.”
In recent weeks, higher ed leaders have also vowed to stand firm in their efforts to protect their DEI programming. Mount Holyoke College president Danielle Holley told the Associated Press that she believes the orders are subject to legal challenges.
“Anything that is done to simply disguise what we’re doing is not helpful,” Holley told the Associated Press. “It validates this notion that our values are wrong. And I don’t believe that the value of saying we live in a multiracial democracy is wrong.”
